BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, ARK.
March 6–8, 1862.
One of the most brilliant events of the war west of the Mississippi, was the battle of Pea Ridge, which lasted from the 6th to the 8th of March, and crowned the national army with a splendid victory, after a long and toilsome pursuit of the rebels.
After the removal of General Fremont from the command in Missouri, the army which he had led from Jefferson City to Springfield, made a retrograde movement, falling back on Rolla, St. Louis and the towns on the line of the Missouri river. As was to be anticipated, the consequence of this retreat was the return of General Price, with his forces, and the reoccupation of the whole of Southern Missouri by the insurgents. They remained in possession of the field until February, when a new national force, under Generals Curtis, Sigel and Ashboth entered the field and advanced rapidly in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The rebels fell back, to avoid a general engagement, and evacuated Springfield, on the 12th of February, near which, in a brief skirmish, General Curtis’ army encountered and defeated them. On the morning of the 13th General Curtis entered the town, and restored the national flag to its place. Price left about six hundred sick men behind him, and large quantities of forage and wagons. He expected that the Federal army would remain several days at least in Springfield, to give the troops rest, satisfied with the reoccupation of this valuable position.
But General Curtis was not a man to sleep upon his arms. On the morning of the 14th, he resumed his pursuit, and continued his march to Crane’s Creek, about twenty-two miles from Springfield. He pressed closely upon the enemy, and on the 17th had another encounter with them at Sugar Creek. This protracted pursuit of three weeks, at an average rate of twenty miles a day, is remarkable in the history of warfare. But like most western men, General Curtis had learned the art of war, and the expediency of energetic action to some purpose. He had given up his seat in Congress when the war broke out, and took the field, forgetting politics and every thing else in a burning love of his country. With such men long marches and hard fighting is the business of war. They shrink from nothing but inaction.
Both armies had now reached the soil of Arkansas. The rebels being rapidly reinforced by regiments which had been stationed in that State and the Indian Territory, General Price was in a better position to give battle. Upon mature deliberation, General Curtis selected Sugar Creek as the best position he could take to withstand any attack which might be made upon him. The enemy had, in the mean time, taken up his position in the locality of Cross Hollow, which was peculiarly adapted to his mode of warfare. But this was not long permitted, for on learning that the Union troops were turning their flank by way of Osage Spring, Price’s followers again decamped in hot haste, leaving behind a considerable quantity of supplies and munitions of war. By this time the lines of the Union army extended nearly ten miles. The right was under General Sigel, resting at the Osage Springs, and the left under Colonel Carr, extending to Cape Benjamin. Colonel Carr’s headquarters were at Cross Hollows.
Having abandoned Cross Hollows, General Price took up a fresh position in the Boston Mountains, a high range that divides the waters of the White Mountains and Arkansas, where every effort was made to rally the dispirited rebels and augment the ranks of his command. Here it was that he was reinforced by Generals McCullough, Pike and Van Dorn. These combined armies were estimated at thirty-five thousand men.
Matters remained comparatively quiet until the 5th of March, when General Curtis received information that the rebels were advancing to give battle. The information proved correct, and the 6th, 7th and 8th will long be held in remembrance as the anniversary of one of the bloodiest conflicts of the war.
Pea Ridge is in the extreme north-west part of Arkansas, situated in Benton, the corner county of the State. A range of hills—a spur of the Ozark Mountains—sweeps from Missouri into this corner of the State, and from thence branches into the Indian Territory, where the section known as the Boston Mountains is found. Sugar Creek, where the battle commenced, is situated close to Bentonville, the capital of the county on the north. Pea Ridge is also adjacent to the same town, and forms a part of the mountain range just described.
At this time it became evident to the several commanders that a general contest was inevitable. A decisive combat was, in fact, desired by both of the opposing forces. General McIntosh, confident of success with his large army, under the leadership of Price, McCulloch, Pike and Van Dorn, believed that he could strike a fatal blow at the Union cause west of the Mississippi, by the annihilation of the Federal army. General Curtis, on the other hand, was not less anxious for a contest, even at the fearful disadvantage offered him. With his keen discrimination, he saw the glorious results of a defeat of the four rebel chieftains united against him. Should he prove successful in the almost desperate encounter, it would prove the destruction of the rebel forces in the two States, and leave a clear field for future operation. Should he fail—but no true general even thinks of that after he has made up his mind to fight.